Monday, July 02, 2007

I love this web site of ancient inventions! This one is especially intriguing:

Trepanation is a method of brain surgery whose origins can be traced to the Late Stone Age. Some remote societies still practice it today, and in some tribal cultures of East Africa it has survived as an integral part of traditional medicine. Doctors employed this invasive procedure to relieve distress caused by a variety of disturbances, including skull fractures, parasites, pressure, hydrocephaly, incurable headaches, and even evil spirits. Intricate and refined instruments aided prehistoric surgeons in the different methods of penetrating the skull, and sometimes in actually removing tissue from the brain. --Trepanation Kit, Worldwide, 2000 BCE by Dierdre Crane

It would seem common sense that drilling a hole in one's head would not be recommended for one's health and well being. Really? What if you were told that Bill Clinton's mentor at Oxford University, Lord James Neidpath, drilled a hole in his head? Or that the procedure is as old as the ancient Egyptians and Incas that practiced it? Or that those who have undergone the surgery report added energy, increased brain power, and even induce a permanent feeling of high?

It is the strange phenomena of trepanation, the procedure of drilling a small hole through one's skull, that is examined by an hour-long documentary released by alternative/rock musician Cevin Soling. 'A Hole In the Head' examines the development of "modern" trepanation as used by people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and The Netherlands for the purpose of attaining a higher level of consciousness.